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15 Minute Chicken Pepper Pasta

Have you ever been so hungry that you feel like even a “30 Minute Meal” is asking too much? Me too. Especially lately. Usually quick means bad for you when it comes to dinner options. If you have a box of pasta, a package of chicken, and some veggies, you’re in business. This meal is really versatile because you can use peppers, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, whatever you have lying around your refrigerator.

I fell in love with this dish about 10 years ago. Yeah, we go way back. I used to grab lunch from this little Italian cafe downtown. They had a serious variety of pasta salads. This particular meal was my favorite. Naturally, at the ripe old age of 19, I attempted making it myself (in my mother’s kitchen of course). It took a few tries to nail it, but I finally got it. And I practically lived on this throughout college.

This pasta dish is a perfect weeknight dinner and makes an awesome lunch. It is simple, fresh, and best of all can be served hot or cold. Win!

You’ll need:

1 box of pasta (medium shells, rigatoni, and ziti are all good choices)

Extra virgin olive oil

1.5 lb boneless skinless chicken

2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers

grated cheese

Salt, pepper, crushed red pepper to taste

What I did:

Boil water adding salt to the water to season the pasta, add the pasta and cook according to package. Strain when done.

While the water starts to boil for your pasta, slice up your peppers. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a skillet and cook peppers over medium to medium high heat.

While the peppers are doing their thing in the frying pan, cut up the chicken into bite size pieces. In another oiled skillet, cook chicken until no longer pink.

By now, your pasta should be ready to roll. Everything should be finished cooking at the same time. In a large serving bowl, add your pasta, chicken and peppers. Drizzle with olive oil, add generous amount of grated cheese, and add salt pepper and crushed red pepper to taste. Stir it up and dig in!

going nuts on your blog! love these quick meals for during the week,, fresh and healthy! I will deff try this… heres an idea! you can even substitute the chicken for chicken sausage! I’m not a regular sausage fan, but chicken sausage I like, it has some serious spice and flavor =)